Cities to stretch limited road salt, money

Dave Barber did the math. Now Peoria's public works director is crossing his fingers and hoping the city has enough road salt to ride out the winter.

JIM SUHR

Dave Barber did the math. Now Peoria's public works director is crossing his fingers and hoping the city has enough road salt to ride out the winter.

The city recently paid almost $48 a ton to replenish its salt supply, an increase of 30 percent, or $500,000, over last year.

And snowplows likely will hit the streets for the first time today, as central Illinois is expected to get two to four inches of snow by early Monday morning. Dan Kelly, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Lincoln, said drivers should be cautious of road conditions.

"Being the first accumulation of the year, people need to remember how to drive in winter weather," Kelly said. "It's been awhile since we've had snow, so we urge drivers to slow down and keep an eye out for slippery spots."

Rain mixed with snow was predicted until just after midnight Saturday, switching to snow in the early morning hours and continuing throughout the day today. Central Illinois is under a winter weather advisory until 6 a.m. Monday, with snow-covered roads and limited visibility expected throughout the area.

Hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst, many communities are making plans to stretch road cleanup supplies by mixing salt with sand, brine or even beet juice.

"It's a balancing act between money and quantity," said Barber, who expects to mix the city's salt supply with two parts of sand, effectively cutting the per-ton cost to about $23. "This year, the dollars are going to govern for us, and we're going to try to live within the budget."

Though Peoria's supply cost may seem steep, some towns are paying as much as $170 a ton as salt prices across the U.S. soar because of shipping problems and surging demand.

In New Hampshire, the state expects to pay $2 million to $3 million more than the $8 million it typically spends on salt. North Dakota's state transportation department, which paid $1.6 million for road salt last year, says the price jumped to about $67 a ton this winter.

The wildly disparate costs have raised eyebrows.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is investigating possible collusion among suppliers but so far has found nothing illegal, Madigan spokeswoman Robyn Ziegler said.

Dick Hanneman, president of the Salt Institute - a trade group representing U.S. and Canadian salt manufacturers - said the price increase was caused by a "perfect storm" of factors.

Record snows in some parts of the U.S. last winter depleted road salt supplies, even though suppliers shipped a near-record 20.3 million tons last year, up from the average 16 million tons a year through the previous decade, Hanneman said.

Then, fearing a repeat of the problem, many states increased their salt orders this year, Hanneman said. Illinois, for example, asked for 34 percent more, and Iowa's request spiked by 52 percent.

Hanneman said the handful of salt suppliers in North America have been running full throttle to try to meet demand.

There are three mines in Louisiana, three in Kansas, two apiece in Texas, Ohio and Ontario, Canada, and one in New York, all serving states in the Great Lakes and Mississippi River regions, Hanneman said.

Most of the salt for the East Coast is shipped in from overseas, he said.

Weather hasn't always cooperated, either.

Summer flooding closed locks and dams on the Upper Mississippi River for weeks, disrupting barge shipments of road salt. Soaring U.S. gasoline prices over the summer added to the cost of transporting the salt.

And in September, Hurricane Ike lashed the Bahamas, idling a Morton Salt site for a week. The storm also shut down production for days at three Louisiana salt mines.

States have little choice but to pay higher prices and then try to stretch supplies.

The agency contracted to buy 687,730 tons of salt at prices ranging from $55 to $140 a ton. Combined with the 172,000 tons left over from last winter, IDOT has slightly more than what it used last winter, Sees said.

Indiana state highway crews will use a new software program to calculate how much road salt is needed on a particular stretch of road.

In Peoria, Barber is hoping his planning pays off.

"It's not like we're the only ones in the boat doing this," he said.

Journal Star reporter Erin Wood contributed to this story.

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